Dietary changes post dx?

Mrs_Beasley

I am very curious to learn what if any dietary changes you all decided to make (independently or Dr. mandated) after surgery and during your recovery. I'll never know my cause of my BC. I know I did all the 'right' things in my life with regards to diet/exercise/weight but still got it anyway. So I almost feel change is still required now, even though I led a healthy life before my dx. Do you all feel this way too?? For example, my daily routine now includes a vitamin d pill, 2 cups green tea, cruciferous veggies as snacks, and zero alcohol. Awaiting oncologist appt to confirm whether or not to add tamoxifen and see what they think. What did you all do? What to change is consuming me probably more than it should

avmom

Hi, Mrs. B,

There is a website,

http://foodforbreastcancer.com

that I find interesting. There are research articles, and lists of foods to include and foods to minimize/avoid. Let us know what you think.

avmo

gb2115

I drink less alcohol than I did before (it was never a whole lot anyway...but now I drink once every couple months if even). I will have a glass on Christmas. This is self imposed, onc said no more than 3 drinks a week.

I also stopped using artificial sweeteners when possible just because they are unnecessary to me.

Other than this I have actually lightened up on being strict with my diet. I have always been terrified to gain weight and therefore strict to the point of not eating the foods I want to. Since cancer, I feel like life is way too short to not enjoy what you are eating. This doesn't mean I eat junk all day long (I love vegetables and still eat what most would consider healthy), it just means that I feel in life I have bigger fish to fry than nitpicking my diet to prevent cancer from returning when I don't know what caused it in the first place.

It's been very freeing from a food point of view.

Daniz1983

Hello Mrs B.

Sorry about your diagnosis. I was just diagnosed November 21 and currently waiting in a few more tests to finalize treatment. But I have read some articles and research and everyone is saying diet changes aren’t important. My doctor said to eat a normal diet. But nutritionists and others say no red meat, no sugar, no alcohol, lots more veggies and lots of raw veggies too. I got a juicer and have been juicing veggies and then fruit and drinking that. Pink salt the Himalayan kind allegedly isn’t good. Please share if you find anything else. I love that website that abmon posted. Good luck!!

houmom

My MO sent me to see a dietician the same day I saw her, because I already have a GI disorder which restricts my diet quite severely. The dietician actually recommended trying to reintroduce some of the foods that I have been avoiding for the last few years. She said I needed to focus on eating more protein for my surgeries, so that has been my main focus. I would say I’ve been trying to make better choices since my DX, but it’s been nice to be able to eat some things I missed too.

Amelia01

The conundrum of proper foods I can have has eaten away 4kg from me (I'm now skeletal and a nutritionist told me I'm not healthy enough for chemo!). The weeks after dx I saw food as an enemy, unless it was veggies (and not starchy or sugary ones) and I also viewed legumes as evil (what is the take on phytoestrogens?). I've never felt more weak and angry.

My diet prior to dx wasn't bad but admittedly too much sugar from alcohol (daily wine) and grains (cookies, crackers etc).

I've decided to take meat out of my diet but will probably make some exceptions for organic chicken or beef on super special occasions.

I've dropped the alcohol consumption to minimal (1-3 small glasses a week) and I've cut out dairy unless it is a cube of gouda cheese here and there (it contains the healthy vitamin K2 which is essential for vitamin D to be bioavailable.

Green tea in the form of matcha is now in my diet, and with exclusion of one of the chemos I will sprinkle tumeric on everything (it isn't supposed to be used with most chemo - reference a study done by MD Andersen which oks it during paclitaxel).

It wasn't my diet that got me here. I mostly ate little and mainly organic. Not the healthiest overall diet, but for sure there a billions who eat worse than me that aren't in this position.

I do believe that meat and dairy are not good with estrogen positive issues (they are filled with estrogen -- both natural and oftentimes synthetic growth hormones).

I went to a "nutritionist" who hooked me up various machines and came up with a "diet": Happy to share here ----

I really didn't need to spend the money to see her for this - totally standard.

Well noted she makes no mention of quinoa, or high estrogen foods or anything that isn't standard. Too bad... this is elementary and I beg to differ about rye bread or kamut being any different than white flour. Aren't they the equivalent to Marlboro Lights?

Breakfast:

rye bread, muesli, 3 tsp jam or nut butters or honey

fruit:

banana, kiwi, apples, citrus, blueberries

dried fruits:

dried figs, raisins

Grains/ rice

oats, kamut, spelt, barley, whole grain rice

NO: carrots, potatoes, corn

Legumes: all ok

Dairy: occasionali sheep or goat cheese

Fish: small fatty fish ok, no crustaceans

illimae

I met with the nutritionist at my cancer center soon after dx and was already eating pretty well and am active, so my changes were small ones. I added more color basically, red grapes, darker greens like Swiss chard, etc. I also reduced red wine to once per week if at all and limited my sugar/candy significantly. I do enjoy any holiday eats without guilt though, I just get back on track right after.

Mrs_Beasley

Thank you all this has been so helpful. @avmom that website is great. I am meeting with a new oncologist this week....will see what they say on this topic. I will post my results!!

avmom

Hello, all.

Here's another resource that I found interesting. It's a book called The Pink Ribbon Diet byMary Flynn and Nancy Verde Barr. It's a few years old, but talks about weight loss, if that is something you want to explore, and has some recipes. It might be available at libraries, but I did buy a kobo version to have it available. I am a reader and collector of cookbooks, though. An easy way to describe this eating style is PBOO - Plant Based, Olive Oil Diet. It isn't necessarily vegetarian, but animal products aren't required, either. The olive oil granola recipe is very, very good.

Avmom

ShetlandPony

I think that it is possible that sometimes we worry about our food a little too much, in an effort to feel we have control. I do advocate a healthy, plant-based diet. But I also think we should recognize the importance of other health-promoting things like exercise, sleep (enough and in a dark room for proper melatonin production), stress-reduction, and social support. It may be that a nature walk, yoga class, or hug from a friend is just as important as that broccoli! I found the Blue Zones book gave me a lot to think about regarding total well-being. Sorry to go off topic a bit; I guess I'm trying to say eat well but don't stress over it.

Most oncologists don't get into diet very much. Mine did tell me it was better for cardiovascular health to get calcium from food than supplements, and to take my vitamin D3 as I was deficient.

I like the food for bc web site, too. You might also like to watch online videos of talks by the nutritionist from UCLA Center for Integrative Oncology. She has specific recommendations and emphasizes the importance of gut health for the immune system. And a balanced, low-stress approach to food.

Bon appetit!

moth

Have you seen this journal article on lifestyle modifications? It identifies the ones that have the most evidence based impacts. http://www.cmaj.ca/content/189/7/E268.full?sid=0be...

Exercise is identified as the single most impactful lifestyle change. "Physical activity can reduce breast cancer mortality by about 40% and has the most powerful effect of any lifestyle factor on breast cancer outcomes."

As for diet, the evidence isn't really there, except maybe for low-fat. I have been vegetarian for most of my adult life and vegan for over 5 years. I was pleased to find that the official nutrition booklet that my province is handing out to women with breast cancer advocates a plant-based low-fat diet and emphasizes reaching and maintaining a healthy bmi. I was just gearing up my own articles thinking I'd have to battle with the nutrition team in my January meeting but it turns out they already recommend what I'm doing

If you're looking for meal plans that would fit that, the Forks Over Knives recipes and meal plans are all plant-based low-fat.

Mrs_Beasley

Good points and plans all around. Thank you all for the sanity check, it’s so easy to become obsessed in unhealthy ways. I don’t have anyone else to bounce these ideas off of and I don’t want to be that person in my group of friends who does nothing else but obsess about my BC and various treatments that they may not fully understand.My oncologist liked my plan but took the everything in moderation stance.

orlandosmom

I have just joined and don't have everything in place yet on the site (biography etc.) I had lumpectomy on December 5 for IDC, some DCIS which was not previously found on anything appeared on the margin of the specimen removed, so I am having a re excision next week. That is it so far...did Oncotype DX but do not know results, expect radiation followup, and Arimidex for 5 years. Chemo is not off the table if the oncotyping is not good, although SLN was clear.

I am being treated at City of Hope and just want to throw out some little bits of information that have been given to me so far. I expect more as time goes on. When my genetic testing was done, the genetic oncologist brought up, out of the blue, how important exercise is for cancer patients. I walk at least 30 minutes a day, power walking, and he told me to increase it by 30% and to get to a gym and use elliptical machines when I feel up to it.

City of Hope has done recent clinical trials in breast cancer as related to mushrooms, pomegranates, and blueberries, and I think has one also in the use of fish oil and estrogen inhibitors. Having said that, I dont' know the results but most of the research I have done has named green tea, Chinese type mushrooms, curcumin, and blueberries as high on the list of helpful foods. The Food for Breast Cancer website is extremely helpful and updated on a regular basis. I actually sent them a donation and they sent me a polite acknowledgement and email.

My GP is an integrative and functional MD, maybe not my MD for much longer, as she put me on a red rice yeast/soy based cholesterol lowering supplement (which did seem to help cholesterol); however, when I showed it to my MO he immediately told me to stop using it.

To wind this up, I have been a paranoid wreck about what I eat for most of my life. My mom came out to Los Angeles in the 40s to consult with the nutritionist to the stars, Gayelord Hauser (anyone older around here might know who he was). I also have the app for the EWG on my phone and sometimes even no poo my hair because I am so worried about chemicals, hang out at Whole Foods....but I still got BC. Now, on the other side there is no genetic link to BC but I do have two aunts who had it, neither died from it, and my mom had colon cancer. No children. So who knows what got us all here? COH drs all say to never start on that road of "what did I do wrong?' because it was probably nothing in the long run. I am continuing to follow my so called anti cancer diet which is no sugar, high plant based, no alcohol, organic protein, basically what others have posted. I am being cautious with anything that is estrogen stimulating, lists are online, dairy, breads and anything were there is argument like tofu or flaxseed.

Axolotl

Changes I've made to my diet: I drink green tea instead of coffee, cut refined sugar, reduced the amount of meat and dairy I eat (I didn't eat that much to begin with), and try to eat more berries, fresh juices, turmeric and cruciferous vegetables.

In the last two years I was making and drinking my own kombucha and water kefir on a daily basis. Shortly before my diagnosis I decided it was too much sugar and so stopped drinking it. I won't go back.

This week I've started to do intermittent fasting with a 15- hour window.

lala1

I'm 5 years out from diagnosis and over the years my docs have offered their opinion on what to do to reduce risk of recurrence:

moderate exercise 30 minutes a day plus strength training a couple of times a week

get close to normal BMI although my doc likes a few extra pounds. He thinks it healthier! (I love him!)

4-5 serving of fruit and/or veggies a day

a yoga class a couple of times a week for stress

fish oil supplement with preferably about 1000mg of DHA/EPA combined which is much harder to find than you think!

5000IU of Vit D (my BS swears if we all got our levels up to normal there'd be half the incidence of BC. Mine was way low and i spend most of my day outside! It's because we all wear sunscreen.)

a good multivitamin

good massage every few months to break up the scar tissue from surgeries. It keeps us from getting too hunched over.

I try to do all of these on a regular basis but I'm pretty bad about getting my fruits and veggies. But they all say that exercise definitely reduces my risk by 30-40% so that's one thing I don't slack on!

Oh and if you do Tamoxifen, take turmeric, a good one with black pepper. I'm not sure I could have done these 5 years without it!